World News - Officials: Florida Ring That Stole $48,000 Worth of Baby Formula Broken Up With Arrest of 7

A theft ring that stole $48,000 worth of baby formula from grocery stores was broken up with the arrest of seven people, officials said. The seven were arrested after an informant told the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that the group planned to steal formula at stores in Hobe Sound and Stuart, officials said Thursday. At one of the stores, a Publix in Stuart, four suspects happened to be inside Wednesday just as the manager learned of the plot from the FDLE, authorities said. The four fled when the manager confronted them but were found that day at a storage unit, where officials say they were seen unloading stolen baby formula. Three others were arrested Thursday. ... http://abcnews.go.com

A claim by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh that he can cure Aids in three days has been lambasted by a leading South African HIV/Aids specialist. "I'm astonished. The danger of a president standing up [to say this] is shocking," Jerry Coovadia told the BBC. Mr Jammeh said last month he had begun treating 10 patients on Thursdays with secret medicinal herb ingredients. His health minister backs his claims, saying in trials so far patients had gained weight and physically improved. "A response within three to 10 days and a three-day course is almost inconceivable for a disease like HIV/Aids," said Prof Coovadia, who heads the HIV research team at the University of KwaZulu Natal and is a member of South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign. He said that science was many years away from finding a cure "so the fact that someone announces a cure like this is exceedingly difficult to accept". ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6323449.stm

Venezuela's president has said he will nationalise a series of oil projects in the Orinoco river belt within months. Hugo Chavez was speaking as he signed a law granting him the authority to rule by decree for the next 18 months. Mr Chavez said the government the operations, run with five international oil firms, would be state-owned by the beginning of May. Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said that the government would seize the operations if no agreement was reached. "I have given instructions that on 1 May - 1 May - all the fields of the Orinoco Belt should wake up under our control," Mr Chavez told a news conference. Under Mr Chavez's plans, Venezuela will take on majority stakes of 60% in four projects which process the crude oil in the country's eastern Orinoco Belt. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6322721.stm

The head of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party has criticised the lack of morals among many of the party's members. Speaking at a specially convened meeting, General Secretary Nong Duc Manh said some members showed too much individualism. The meeting follows a series of graft scandals, which have damaged the party's reputation over the past year. Mr Manh told party members that a slipping of moral standards could paralyse the party. He advised them to follow the example of their country's founder, Ho Chi Minh. Corruption scandals Mr Manh began his speech by praising the party's achievements. But then he pointed a finger at those who he said were letting the party down....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6322959.stm

Mayor Jack Ellis has converted to Islam and is working to change his legal name to Hakim Mansour Ellis. Ellis, 61, a Macon native who was raised Christian, said he became a Sunni Muslim during a December ceremony in the west African nation of Senegal. Ellis said he has studied the Quran for years and that his new religion was practiced by his ancestors before they were brought to North America as slaves. "Why does one become a Christian?" Ellis said Thursday. "You do it because it feels right. … To me it's no big deal. But people like to know what you believe in." Name-changing by Ismaic converts is a common practice that is considered commendable, though it is typically not required. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2844807

A dead man's storage locker yielded dozens of tombstones, a macabre collection that police believe represents "a lifetime of stealing."Some of the 47 gravestones date to the late 1800s; others are relatively recent. Police say they probably came from different cemeteries at different times.The markers were found by the family of a Lincoln man who died last summer, but it wasn't until Thursday that police matched the first one to a grave.Police Chief Tom Casady found the mother named on a stone that said only: "Infant son of Charles & Janice Schmidt 1965."Janice Schmidt of Clatonia, 25 miles south of Lincoln, said she and her husband had always thought of their stillborn baby as Michael Shawn Schmidt, so in 2000 they put in a new stone with the name....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,249878,00.html